Page 24 of A Trial By Blood

Striding from the room, I rushed down the stairs, walked outside, picked up a rock, and fired it through the living room window, then several more at the side of the house before striding back inside. If they thought they were under some kind of attack, it was logical that they’d all come down to protect the house.

“Stay with Rose,” Iris ordered Nia before the entire family ran down the stairs, right through me as I took them, two at a time, back to Rose’s room.

Iris and her familiar could communicate, and I couldn’t risk Nia seeing me. I moved closer. Rose’s hand rested on the covers, and I slid it to me, into my block. Nia was utterly focused on Rose’s chest, on its rise and fall, and didn’t notice.

I leaned down, my mouth close to her ear. “Rose?” My powers brushed against her in the hopes that she might hear me. “I need a sample of your blood. It won’t hurt.” I didn’t like the idea of her not understanding what was happening or thinking I was preying on her, taking from her while she slept like I was some…some parasite. The word filled my head. Azel had called me as much often. I shook off the thought, lifted Rose’s hand, and nicked the tip of her finger with my fang. Blood bubbled to the surface, and I sucked it into my mouth.

Her blood coated my tongue, and something wild and hot, something bright and vibrant pulsed through me. My nerve endings sparked, electricity shooting through my limbs. I sucked on her delicate finger again, wanting more. Nothing, no one had ever tasted as good as Rose.

I wanted to get closer to her; everything in me wanted me to get closer. I wanted to climb up onto the bed beside her, feel the warmth of her body, sip at her blood, feed from her, protect her, and care for her. My gaze sliced to her mouth. I wanted to feed her as well. What was this I was feeling? What was happening to me?

I froze at the sound of footsteps on the stairs and forced myself to lick her wound, to heal the cut, then placed her hand carefully beside her. Pulling my powers back, I rushed from the room as Daisy walked back in. I ran past the rest of Rose’s family, who stood in the living room looking puzzled, while Arthur boarded up the broken window and strode outside.

The frigid air hit my face, and I used it to clear my head, to push down my confusion, and focus on Rose’s blood, letting it move through me and become one with me. Blood had its own scent, something most blood drinkers were aware of, but not something Rose’s family would know. It wasn’t a “scent” as witches and shifters would interpret the word. It was indescribable, a knowing, a calling. For some of us, when you drank from a person, you knew where they were and sensed them for a time afterward. Those who were as powerful as me, anyway.

All my instincts were focusing on Rose, telling me to go back into the house to her. I forced myself to resist and focus outward. To search for that part of Rose that didn’t come from her mother, the part of her “scent” that was foreign to her, that wasn’t witch.

What remained was most definitely not human.

Sprinting to my car, I started the engine, planted my foot on the gas, and headed for the city.

A short time later, I found myself at a place I’d been to before. I’d come when I was desperate to feed after Warrick and his brothers had helped me and before I knew of The Vault. Parking my car, I climbed out and headed for the bar across the street.

The place was packed with humans, their scent cloying in the confined space. They blocked my way, several females touching me as I shoved past, and I barely stopped myself from baring my teeth at them.

I didn’t like people touching me—except Rose.

Rose.

I thought about her in that bed, so pale and still, and a strange feeling built in my chest, that same foreign feeling I had around her often, an awakening of some kind, but bigger.

A male stood behind the bar, and I pushed my way through the sweaty humans to get to him. “Are you the proprietor of this establishment?”

The human screwed up his face. “What the fuck did you just say?”

“Is this your bar?”

His fingers curled into a fist. “Who wants to know?”

I didn’t have time for this; Rose didn’t have time. I could sense her father here, or at least he had been here very recently. I didn’t have his full name, but his first name was obscure enough that someone might have heard it. “Is Vesa here tonight?”

“Fuck off,” the male fired back.

I grabbed the front of his shirt, yanked him forward, and slammed his head against the bar’s wooden surface, then pinned it there. “Is Vesa here tonight?”

The human groaned and pointed to the fire exit. “Out there.”

Releasing him, I pushed back through the crowd and shoved the door open. Someone yelped. It was dark, but I had no trouble seeing.

A male, tall and dark-haired, stood against the wall. His pants were down, and a human female had his cock in her mouth.

The male turned to me and scowled. “Get the fuck out of here.”

I strode toward them, lifted the female to her feet, and turned her toward the door. “Inside, now.”

She was unsteady on her feet—

Blood.